RECON 0002.04.01
Gamepro Reveal Ghost Recon
Rocky

Gamepro released the first information on Ghost Recon (GR), in their May issue. While the information was a little sketchy, and the 12 screenshots were obviously faked up to a certain extent, there is some interesting information.

tom clancy

The article is called "Ghost in the Machine" and covers two pages of text and screenshots. The piece opens by confirming the game is another Tom Clancy epic, following on from the hugely successful Rainbow Six series of games. Gamepro also confirm that Rogue Spear guru Brian Upton of RSE is lead Game Designer for the GR project.

Red Storm were one of the first developers to start work on X-Box coding so there was no surprise in the news that the X-Box will see Ghost Recon as one of its early launch titles.

the ghosts

Ghost Recon is based on an American Special Forces Army unit, "The Ghosts". There are 18 missions requiring camp raiding, troop rescuing, and recon objectives amongst other military manoeuvres. Missions can be carried out with the assistance of air and ground support as well as other allied military forces.

combat

The GR combat model shares much with its R6 predecessor in that the "one well placed shot kills" mantra still applies, and that strategy plays a key role. Where there is a departure from the R6 series according to Gamepro, is that there will be no pre-mission planning phase. Super high-tech Land Warrior technology can be utilised during the actual mission so that strategy and tactics can be planned and altered as necessary during the mission.

arms

Tom Clancy's previous series Rainbow Six won acclaim for the accurate portrayal of its armoury. Weapon models, sounds and ammunition types were painstakingly analysed and coded to reach a degree of realism never seen before in a computer game. In Ghost Recon, the RSE team have once again delved deep into the mechanics of some of the most lethal weaponry available today - and in the future. The renowned "Janes" series of books once again was used, just like Greg Stelmack of RSE poured over pages of Jane's famous arms books for Rainbow Six, so Brian Upton laboured over "Jane's Infantry Weapons" for Ghost Recon research. Some of the weaponry available to the team will be of heavy capabilities than previously seen, such as the M136 antitank Rocket.

rpg

There are more major differences to separate Ghost Recon from the Rainbow Six series however. Gamepro reveals that an Role Playing element is being introduced where the team characters can gain experience and skills from successful sorties. This will promote careful play during off-line missions as players attempt to fine tune their teams to the ultimate fighting force.

on-line

Gamepro reports that online play is to be made possible between PC gamers and X-Box Console players, which should set up some tremendous console/PC rivalry and clans.